New Yorker John King has big plans for NT basketball

Ansett basketballer player John King is developing a basketball program for Indigenous kids. Picture: ELISE DERWIN.Source: News Limited

THERE’S much more to New Yorker John King than shooting high scores in the Darwin Basketball Association contest.

King, 29, shot a total of 70 points in two Challenge season matches for the Rebels Men’s team on Friday and Saturday nights. But the basketball ambassador has plans to take the sport to the next level in Asia, in particular Malaysia, his target.

King has just returned from laying the foundations for developing basketball in Kuala Lumpur.

“The bottom line is we want to get Malaysian players playing in Darwin and Darwin players playing in Malaysia,” he said. “I also spoke with the Sports Minister’s adviser with the aim of getting growth within the sport in the country.

“I was also training with the national team in Malaysia.”

The next step for King’s Malaysia basketball project is to run a first school of excellence in August through the Essington School.

“Our goal is to take Essington over there in August. We are about 95 per cent into achieving that,” he said.

King says a KL franchise in the NBL is a distinct possibility.

A huge fan of the NBA, King believes the Miami Heat will take the crown this season, even though the Brooklyn Nets, his hometown club, are pushing them hard.

“Missing out on playing in the NBA was not a disappointment for me,” he said. “The NBA is just one organisation, one league. I am creating my own NBA.”